


Are You With Me?

by sorryinadvance



Series: We're More Than A Band [9]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Ghosts, I Made Myself Cry, I am so sorry, Julie Can't See The Guys, Lots of tears, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, Minor Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Post-Season 01 (Julie and The Phantoms), Sunset Curve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:06:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27057682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorryinadvance/pseuds/sorryinadvance
Summary: Right now I need you hereI need you to stay strongTo remind me where I came fromAnd where I belongSo wake up and stay with meOr Julie wakes up one day and can't see the guys anymore.
Series: We're More Than A Band [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931422
Comments: 59
Kudos: 300





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for awhile, but I was day dreaming at work and pictured the ending. I knew I had to write it. I actually proofread this for once, but I'm tired and sleep deprived. So I'm sorry if I missed something. 
> 
> Please don't hate me after reading this :)

"Right now I need you here  
I need you to stay strong  
To remind me where I came from  
And where I belong  
So wake up and stay with me"

Julie was aware of three very distinct things when she woke up. 

One, it was freezing in her bedroom. Without opening her eyes, she could feel goosebumps erupting on her skin and her muscles trembling. Two, there was a piece of notebook paper stuck to her face. She must have fallen asleep during the band’s songwriting session last night. 

She forced her eyes open against the harsh Saturday morning light that slipped through her curtains. With an irritated grumble, she ripped the notebook paper from her skin and grimaced at the very noticeable drool stains on it. Looking around, Julie became very, very confused. 

Three, her bed was empty. 

Ever since her and the guys had started sleeping in a massive cuddle pile, Julie learned that the guys could sleep until noon if she let them. Glancing at her phone confirmed that it was barely nine thirty, so where were the guys? Julie thought long and hard, furiously racking her brain for a reason they would be gone so early. She came up empty. 

Sure, they could have forgotten to mention something about plans with Willie or left to pull some mischievous pranking with Carlos, or even just going out to explore the world with their still-new ghostly abilities. But, they still would have told her. 

Pursing her lips, Julie tried to ignore the pang of hurt and worry in her chest at the idea of the guys disappearing without telling her. Ever since the Orpheum performance, they had all been overly-attached to each other, constantly having to know where each other were. She shook her head so hard her curls slapped against her cheeks. They were three ghosts and could be responsible when they needed to be (even though they usually shared one brain cell between them), so as long as they were together (or as long as Alex was with the other two goons), she had no reason to worry. 

Right?

+

Julie ignored the aching feeling in her chest when they still hadn’t reappeared by lunch time. Reggie never missed the chance to follow her dad around the kitchen and talk to his newly acquired father figure, especially since Ray finally knew of the boy’s existence and could respond to him now. 

Julie ignored her sinking heart when Luke didn’t come lounge in her bedroom while she did her homework. It had become a tradition for the floppy-haired ghost with his annoyingly charismatic smile and big puppy dog eyes to make her laugh while she studiously tried to ignore his presence in hopes of getting some work done. 

The huge red warning sign flashed behind her eyelids when dinner time rolled around and Alex didn’t come strolling into her room to collect Luke and Julie with a sly warning that if they didn’t hurry up then Ray would come up for them. 

She sat through dinner and forced herself to eat her father’s spaghetti even though her stomach wanted to reject the food. She did her best to pretend everything was perfectly fine. She ignored the urge to burst into tears when her father asked where the boys had been all day and somehow managed to give him a casual response about Willie and ghost shenanigans. She forced herself to calmly stand and place her dishes in the sink instead of running to the studio when her father moved to begin cleaning up. 

Julie managed to close the back door behind herself before her calm façade shattered. She broke into a sprint to the studio. Struggling to breath, she slammed against the studio doors before gathering her thoughts and forcing the wooden doors to open. She flicked the lights on and stared. 

The studio was empty. 

The boys’ instruments were exactly where they had left them after their last band rehearsal the day before. The coffee table was still covered in sheet music and Reggie’s drawings. Alex’s fanny pack was still hanging on a nail to dry after Luke had accidentally knocked Julie’s water over the other night. Luke’s favorite orange beanie was long forgotten on the grand piano after Julie had stolen it from him, resulting in a game of monkey in the middle with Alex. The studio was still full of memories from the past few months since her three ghosts had quite literally fallen into her life. However, the once welcoming and magical feeling she always felt when she walked in to see the guys sitting on the sofa waiting for her to come home from school or huddled over her laptop to catch up on two decades worth of music was long gone. 

Now, all Julie felt was emptiness and pain. And cold. 

They weren’t here. They were gone. 

Julie sunk to her knees. She didn’t realize she was crying until a harsh sob shook her body. After that, she completely broke. Sobs wracked her body and tears came steadily flowing. 

She knew she should call Flynn. Or go find Willie. Or confront Caleb because he just had to be behind their disappearance. Or just try to find out what happened to her bandmates, but all Julie could do was cry. 

Julie had just started healing from her mother’s death. She finally got music back into her life. Her confidence was at an all-time high and she was the happiest she had been in so long. Julie had welcomed Sunset Curve into her life with open arms, but Julie hadn’t realized how deep those three idiots had engrained themselves into her heart until now. She loved them and they loved her. In fact, now that she thought about it, Julie realized they were all a little in love with each other. They were in love with the music they created, the bonds they shared, the family they became. Now, here she was, huddled in the middle of an empty studio, experiencing the pain of three different heartbreaks. 

Suddenly, Julie felt a cool breeze graze over her skin. 

It was like a slight pressure, almost like feeling imaginary insects crawling on your skin but seeing nothing there.

Julie snapped her head in the direction of where she thought the breeze had come from. The spot beside her was empty.

Then, the large overhead light flickered once. Twice. Three times. 

She swallowed and glanced around. “Guys? Is that you?”

From the other side of the studio, one of the potted plants fell from its perch on a wooden shelf. 

“Julie,” a voice whispered in her ear. It was muddled and hard to make out, almost like trying to hear something from underwater. But it was there. She would know Luke’s voice anywhere. 

“Luke?”

The cool breeze brushed over her face. Julie closed her eyes and imagined his hand coming up to brush the tears from her cheeks. 

The pounding bass echoed in the quiet studio. Julie snapped her eyes open and looked at Alex’s drum set. Alex was no where to be seen, but she could see the drum vibrating from the force of the pedal. A small seed of relief buried itself in her heart. 

A soft strumming came from Reggie’s bass. When Julie flicked her gaze to see the boy’s guitar floating in midair, she allowed her relief to grow. 

The cool breeze brushed over her once again before vanishing completely. 

Julie looked over at Luke’s guitar and waited. What must have been only seconds felt like hours as she waited for the guitar to hover in midair. A soft rift danced its way into her heart. The relief blossomed in her chest now. She felt like crying again. 

Julie pushed herself off the floor and moved to stand in front of her mic stand, facing the instruments being moved by invisible bodies. She choked back her tears and began singing. 

The pre-chorus for Bright, the very first song they had performed together, slipped from her lips. The guys matched her voice beat for beat. Slowly, as the song began to build up, the ghosts became visible to her eyes again. 

The first thing she saw was Alex’s blonde hair reappear. Then, his face and shoulders manifested before her. With a glance left and right, Julie saw Luke and Reggie reappearing the same way. Instead of magically snapping into existence like usual, the three ghosts were slowly fading in piece by piece. Until finally, they were completely there in all their worn-out jeans and messy shirts glory. 

Julie was scared to blink, too worried that they might disappear again. 

She quickly looked each of them up and down. When Julie reached their faces, she saw her relief and happiness and tears reflected back to her threefold. 

“What happened?” Julie’s voice broke with tears threatening to spill, “Where did you go?”

The three ghosts exchanged equally concerned and worried glances. Alex and Reggie nodded to Luke. 

Licking his lips, Luke looked back at Julie. “We’ve been here the whole time, Jules.”

Julie felt like the floor had been pulled out from under her. 

“No. There’s no way. I was waiting for you guys to come back. I thought you were gone with Willie or…” she trailed off. 

She didn’t have to finish her sentence for the boys to know what she thought. The mere thought of her ghosts crossing over without her knowing weighed heavy on her heart all day, and she had refused to entertain it.

“Julie, we had been doing everything we could to get your attention,” Reggie told her. 

“Yeah, we were there when you woke up. We tried talking to you, but you couldn’t hear us. We’ve been doing everything we could to try and get your attention. Reggie even yelled in your ear a few times,” Alex chuckled. 

A small smile grew on her lips at the thought of the three of them trying to get her attention. Then, as quick as it appeared, her smile dropped. Julie thought of how panicked and scared they must have been when they realized she couldn’t hear or see them. That she was just like everyone else. 

“Why can’t I see you?” she whispered. 

They exchanged another three-way glance. 

“We don’t know,” Reggie said hesitantly. 

“But we’re gonna figure it out, okay? Jules, we figured out the whole thing with Caleb’s stamps, and we’re going to figure this out. So don’t worry. We got this,” Luke said. The confidence in his voice almost convinced Julie that things would be okay. 

The song was drawing to an end. Julie didn’t know if she could keep the tears out of her voice long enough to start another song, but she also didn’t want to lose sight of her friends again. 

“Julie, even if you can’t see us, just know that we’re there, okay? We aren’t going to leave you alone. One of us will always be with you while we try to figure out what’s going on,” Alex’s comforting words soothed her worries a little more. 

“You can’t get rid of us that easily. We’re family. A real family. That’s something we haven’t had in a long time, so you’re kind of stuck with us now,” Reggie’s humor tainted reassurances convinced her completely. 

“I love you guys. Please just hurry, alright? We can’t get that record deal and platinum album if I can’t even see you. And try to keep me in the loop as best as you can. I don’t want to be sitting here worrying myself to death,” Julie choked out a wet laugh at her crudely timed joke. 

Luke smirked. Reggie chuckled. Alex smiled. 

None of their reactions reached their eyes. Fear and uncertainty and worry still danced around in each of their eyes. Julie was sure they could see the same emotions in her eyes. 

As the song ended, they all froze, waiting. Nothing happened. The three boys were still tangible. Then, as smiles began to grow on their faces, they began fading out once again. It happened slowly, painfully slow in Julie’s opinion. She was forced to watch as they became transparent, looking just like the holograms they claimed to be. And then, between one blink and the next, they were gone. 

They had to be strong for each other. She knew that. They would figure this out like they always do, and things would be back to normal (or as normal as they can be with three ghosts). She knew that too. They were still there, watching her, waiting for her to return to the house. She also knew that too. 

But she couldn’t stop herself from slumping against the armchair behind her and dropping her head into her hands. Julie felt a cold breeze wash over her entire body and stay there. When it didn’t disappear like it had before, she realized this was as close as they could get to a group hug right now. She also couldn’t stop her shoulders from shaking and tried to press herself closer to the cold presence.

“Please don’t leave me, too,” she choked out. Julie wasn’t sure, but it felt like the cool air became colder. Like the boys, her boys, were squeezing her tighter. 

“We won’t,” three phantom voices whispered in her ear.


	2. The Boys POV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The events of Are You With Me? from the guys POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This physically hurt me to write. I hope you guys enjoy it. Remember, yall asked for this...

Reggie’s sleep was rudely interrupted when Julie sat up in bed, making him roll off her chest and fall into Luke. The brown-haired ghost grunted a protest when Reggie’s back collided with his face.

“Julie!” both boys whined. Their voices were thick from sleep and Luke still had his eyes closed. The girl either ignored their protests or was half asleep and hadn’t processed their whining.

Reggie rapidly blinked, adjusting to the bright morning sun. Once his eyes were focused again, he noticed something. Many somethings.

Julie pulled a piece of notebook paper from her face and he watched as she made a face at the drool stains. Normally he would make a lighthearted jab about it, but he couldn’t shake the weird feeling in his gut. The last time he had ignored it, they had died eating the tainted hotdogs.

Reggie frowned as Julie glanced around the room. He followed her eyes. Alex was still sprawled on the floor with his legs resting up on the foot of the bed. Reggie was half sprawled on Luke as the other boy laid on his stomach and had his face buried in his favorite pastel pink pillow. Julie’s notebook was still left abandoned on the pillow from when she had fallen asleep during their songwriting session last night.

“Julie?” he hesitantly asked. The weird feeling in his gut was starting to grow.

She didn’t respond. She continued looking around. There was a small furrow between her brows, and she began chewing on her bottom lip.

“Julie,” he tried again. “Hey, Jules?”

Still nothing. She suddenly shook her head so hard that her curly hair slapped against her face.

“Julie!” Reggie practically yelled. His voice shook with panic.

_No, no no. Please hear me, Julie. Please._

“Reg, shut up. It’s too early,” Alex grumbled from his spot on the floor.

Reggie moved closer to Julie and tried to grab her shoulders. His hands went right through her. Julie shivered.

“Julie! Hey! I’m right here!” Reggie shouted hysterically.

The girl suddenly slipped off the bed and walked right through Alex to leave the room.

“Ah! What the heck?” Alex cried as the girl’s legs suddenly passed through his body. When she didn’t react, the blonde sat up and stared after her. “Julie?”

The two boys watched as she left the room without turning back. Alex looked back at Reggie. Reggie looked back at him. Confusion and worry were evident on both boys’ faces.

“Guys, why is there so much yelling?” Luke grumbled into the pillow.

Reggie whirled around to shove the boy awake.

“Dude!” Luke shouted as he fell off the bed with a thud. “What was that for?”

“Julie can’t see us!”

Luke crawled off the floor to lean his upper body on the mattress. He rubbed his eyes before responding. “What do you mean she can’t see us?”

“Exactly what I said! She just walked right through me! And when I called her name, she didn’t even react,” Alex said.

“Yeah, and I’ve been trying to get her attention this whole time and nothing! Nothing! It’s like I wasn’t even there. She was looking around the room and it was like…like she was seeing an empty room.”

Luke was significantly more awake than he was two minutes ago. He stood up and stared at Reggie.

“She couldn’t see us? At all? There’s no way,” Luke shook his head.

Reggie could hear the uncertainty in his voice, but his words irked him. Luke hadn’t seen the confused look on Julie’s face when she looked around the room and completely missed their presence. Alex stood up from the floor and glanced back at the door as if Julie was going to pop back into the room and claim it was a joke.

“If you don’t believe me, go and see for yourself!” Reggie snapped at him.

Luke flinched at his harsh tone, but he quickly steeled himself. He focused a glare at the boy on the bed. “Fine, I will.”

He stomped out of the room with Alex and Reggie hot on his heels. The trio rushed downstairs and into the kitchen, where the Molina family was gathered for breakfast.

Ray was standing in front of the stove, while Julie and Carlos sat at the island. When the boys got closer, Luke moved to stand at Julie’s elbow.

“Morning, J,” the boy said confidently. Julie didn’t even look in his direction.

Reggie couldn’t stand watching his friend try to get the girl’s attention. Instead, he walked over to Ray. He was about to open his mouth, in hopes that the man might be able to see him, when Ray turned and walked right through him. Reggie’s heart dropped.

When he turned, he saw Alex staring at him with pity. Ignoring his gaze, Reggie moved to stand in front of Carlos. Luke was still trying to get Julie’s attention, and he could hear his friend’s voice become frantic. Swallowing, Reggie waved a hand in the kid’s face. Nothing.

Alex moved closer and said, “Carlos? Hey?”

The boy suddenly shivered and glanced around. His eyes swept over Alex and Reggie, but he didn’t even acknowledge them.

“It’s cold in here. Is the A/C on full blast or something?” Carlos asked his father.

Julie nodded. “Yeah, my room was freezing when I woke up.”

Luke tried poking Julie’s cheek, but his finger went right through.

The three ghosts exchanged glances. Alex pursed his lips and nodded his head in direction of the studio. None of them could handle being ignored by their new family.

They vanished to the studio.

Alex was pacing in the space between the furniture and their instruments. Luke was sitting on the edge of the coffee table with his head in his hands. His fingers were tugging so hard on his hair that no one would be surprised if chunks started coming out. Reggie was curled up on the sofa with his hands around his knees.

“What changed between last night and this morning? Something had to have happened for us to be invisible to her. It doesn’t make sense,” Alex mumbled as he paced back and forth.

“Maybe it was Caleb,” Luke said quietly.

Luke couldn’t believe it. They had just met Julie a few months ago, and they were all blown away by the fact that she could see them. According to Willie, a lifer has never been able to see ghosts without some kind of magic (aka Caleb) involved. But there was Julie, breaking the natural order of things and giving them a second chance at their dream. They brought music back to each other. They saved each other. And now she couldn’t see them.

“This is so messed up,” Reggie said so quietly that Luke wasn’t sure if he was talking to himself or them.

Alex shook his head. “Willie said Caleb has been MIA for months, since the night of the Orpheum performance.”

“No one else could do this. At least no one that we know of. It has to be him,” Luke said, looking up at the blonde.

“He could be getting payback since we ditched him. I’m sure he was pissed that we could break his mind control thing,” Reggie said. His voice sounded hollow.

When Luke glanced at him, he saw the boy was staring vacantly at the floor. With a glance at Alex, they moved to sit on either side of him.

“Hey, buddy. We’re gonna fix this, okay?” Luke told him.

Alex stayed quiet. Luke glared at him over Reggie’s head. They had a silent debate that ended with Alex sighing and wrapping an arm around Reggie’s shoulders. “Luke’s right. We’re going to figure this out like we always do, and we’ll all be laughing about it over Ray’s spaghetti by dinner time.”

Reggie nodded but kept staring at the floor. “I don’t want to lose anyone else.”

Luke and Alex’s hearts broke simultaneously. They knew how much Reggie loved the Molina family. Julie was always so sweet and kind to him. Ray was the father Reggie never had. Carlos made him laugh harder than anyone else ever had. They all loved the Molinas more than anything. They were the supportive and loving family that none of the boys had ever gotten to experience, and, as selfish as it was, none of them wanted to let that go.

Neither of them could come up with the words to reassure their friend. With pursed lips and shaky hands, they wrapped their arms around Reggie and squeezed him tightly.

They were all hurting and scared about this new change. It was worse than crossing over. Yeah, they might not know what was on the other side, but it was probably better than seeing the people they loved living their lives without knowing they were right there. Luke hated going to his house and having his parents walk through him or not being able to see him from his perch on the kitchen counter. He hated not being able to comfort his mother when she cried or touch his father’s shoulder when his eyes carried the sadness from losing his only son. Now, Julie and her family were just like them.

Luke shook his head as anger and fear battled in his heart. He jumped off the couch and began pacing where Alex had been moments before. “No. No way. We aren’t losing anyone else. We are going to fix this. Dammit, we just got them. We just got music back. We just started living again, and I will be damned if we lose that again.”

“What’s your plan?” Alex asked. He was still laying his cheek softly against Reggie’s hair, but blue fire danced in his eyes. Luke knew he was just as enraged by this as he was. 

Luke stopped pacing and faced his friends. He bounced on the balls of his feet, thinking.

“Go talk to Willie. See if he knows anything about why this could have happened. Maybe Caleb is involved and worked his weird voodoo on us again. Or maybe there’s another boss player we need to know about. Me and Reggie will stay here and keep working on Julie and her family. Maybe there’s a way we can get through to them.”

Alex nodded. He whispered something in Reggie’s ear and waited until the other boy nodded half-heartedly. With a pat on his shoulder, Alex untangled his arms from Reggie’s shoulders and poofed out to go find Willie.

Luke slipped back onto the sofa next to Reggie. “Hey, you ready to go back in there? Or do you need a few?”

Reggie pursed his lips but stayed quiet.

“Come on, buddy. We can’t stay here moping. We need to fix this.”

Reggie glared at him. “Moping? Is that what you think I’m doing?’

The venom in his voice caught Luke off guard. He hadn’t seen Reggie angry in, well, twenty-five years. His friend didn’t show his anger often. When they were kids, Reggie had a bit of a temper. There were a few times Luke had to get involved in fights that he had started. He knew Reggie’s parents would kill him if they found out, so Luke always took the blame. Reggie’s temper got better as they got older. He learned to control it better and morph it into something better, more positive. Instead, Reggie used color pencils and spray paint to channel his anger into something beautiful and creative. His art was his escape. By the time they met Alex in high school, Reggie’s temper was obsolete.

“Reggie, we’re all upset. I’m pissed okay? I’m pissed that this is happening to us, but we need to keep it cool. That’s the only way we’re going to solve the problem,” Luke said.

“You don’t even know if we can fix this. Don’t you get it? I can’t handle this. Alex has Willie. You have your parents. Who do I have? No one. Fucking no one, okay? God, Luke. Julie? Her family? They were all I had left. That was it for me,” Reggie suddenly shouted. He stood from the couch and kicked the wooden ladder that led to the loft.

Luke rushed to grab the other boy’s shoulders and turn him around to face him.

“Look at me. Reggie, fucking look at me,” Luke caught his friend’s face in his hands, forcing brown eyes to meet hazel ones. “You aren’t alone. Do you hear me? You have us. You have always had us. Yeah, Alex has Willie. Willie is our friend too, remember? And my parents? Shit, they can’t even see me. I just sit there and follow them around that empty house. It’s pathetic. But you? You have me and Alex. We are your best friends and always will be. We started a family back in 1995. Julie, Ray, and Carlos are our new family. Now, we need to fix this and bring our family back to us. Got it? So get your shit together and let’s figure this out, Reginald.”

Reggie stared at him. For a moment, Luke thought he might have gone too far, but then Reggie took a shaky breath and nodded.

“Yeah. Okay, yeah. You’re right. So what do we do?”

“We do what we do best. We annoy the shit out of Julie.”

+

Luke and Reggie spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon following Julie around. They tugged on her curls, spoke to her, and snapped fingers in front of her face. The most reaction they got was when she wrinkled her nose and flinched away after Luke blew a raspberry on her cheek.

Alex reappeared in time to see Reggie shouting in Julie’s ear as she obliviously worked on her calculus assignment.

“Okay…I see things have been working great for you two,” Alex said drily.

Luke rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. What did Willie say?”

Reggie plopped miserably on the floor as he waited for Alex to answer. Luke was relieved to see none of the anger from earlier on his face.

Alex blew out a heavy sigh. “Well, Willie said he hasn’t heard of this happening, but he also hadn’t heard of a lifer being able to see ghosts to begin with. So, there’s that. Apparently Caleb made a random reappearance a few days ago back at the club but get this. He was possessing a human. A teenage lifer. Some kid with floppy reddish hair and freckles. Sound familiar?”

“That sounds like Nick.”

“That’s what I said. It’s too much of a coincidence for Caleb to be possessing someone who looks like one of Julie’s friends.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences.” Luke rubbed his bottom lip. It made sense. If Caleb was possessing Nick this whole time, then who knows how much he had been learning about them. He thought back to all the times Nick and Flynn had come over to study with Julie. When they came by the house, the guys would always sit in the kitchen and just hang out, making Julie laugh or just enjoying her and Flynn’s presence. Caleb had been gathering intel, studying them, and none of them had realized.

“We were right then. This has to be Caleb’s doing,” Reggie said, glancing between Alex and Luke.

Alex fidgeted with his rings. Luke started pulling on the skin on his lip. Neither of them spoke. The idea of Caleb being in their home unsettled the boys. The only plus side was that now they had a starting point.

“Willie said he would snoop around and try to find something to help us fix this. He doesn’t know how much he’ll find, but he said he would come by tomorrow to help.”

Luke nodded. The three boys glanced at Julie and watched as she closed her books. They could see the worry she was feeling in her furrowed brows and peeling bottom lip. She had a habit of chewing on her lip when she was upset. The way she was restlessly playing with her bracelets and picking at her nails was a clear sign of how distressed she felt. Although they knew they should try to work on a plan to fix their little disappearing act, none of them could bear to leave Julie when she was like this.

So they stayed and watched her, hoping she would look up and see them sitting on her bedroom floor.

She didn’t.

+

The three ghosts sat on the island in the kitchen and talked quietly amongst themselves as the Molina family was seated at the kitchen table for dinner.

Alex noticed the scuff marks on Reggie’s boots that weren’t there this morning. He remembered Luke telling him about Reggie and how bad his temper used to be. How aggressive he used to get when they were kids. This situation must have been too much for him and he lashed out after Alex had gone to find Willie.

He inched closer to Reggie and slung an arm over his shoulders. It was a casual enough movement that the other boy wouldn’t notice it was an action of comfort, but Alex pretended not to notice the relieved look Reggie sent his way.

Alex watched Luke watching Julie and smiled. He knew from experience that Luke had grown feelings for the girl, but Alex wondered if Luke had even realized it. Probably not. It had taken Luke months to realize he had a crush on Alex back in 1995 even though it was painfully obvious to everyone in the vicinity (Alex included).

He followed the boy’s gaze and noticed how Julie was completely zoned out. Her father and brother were having a conversation about one of Carlos’ baseball games, and Julie nodded along or laughed at the right moments. He realized she did it with the same practiced ease he had when he would eat dinner with his family. Alex couldn’t help but wonder if she had mastered the skill after her mom passed away and the grief left her in a haze. The thought made his heart hurt.

Finally, Ray stood to collect the dirty dishes and Carlos followed him to help with the clean up. Julie practically ran through the kitchen to place her plate in the sink and disappear through the back door. She must be heading to the studio.

The three ghosts exchanged a look before vanishing. They reappeared in the studio just in time to hear Julie slam against the doors before throwing them open. 

They watched as she looked around the studio, completely overlooking where they stood beside her. Julie’s shoulders slumped in obvious disappointment.

She slowly glanced around the room again before sinking down to her knees.

“Oh, Julie,” Alex murmured as he dropped down beside her. Luke and Reggie followed him to the ground. They huddled around her, trying in vain to comfort her as heart wrenching sobs escaped her mouth.

They didn’t know how long they sat there and listened to her cry, completely unseen.

Luke bit his lip and fluttered his hands over her shoulders and arms without touching her. Seeing other people cry always made him uncomfortable, but he wished with everything he had that he could do something to comfort her. Reggie stared down at the ground with his eyes closed and his hands in fists. He couldn’t handle seeing one of his favorite people in the world in so much pain and being unable to do anything about it. Alex placed a hand over hers where it rested on the floor. His shoulders shook as he took harsh breaths to keep his own anxiety at bay.

Alex leaned against Julie’s arm, and her sobs stopped.

“Guys? Is that you?” Julie asked.

All three ghosts stared at her with wide eyes. She was looking down at the arm Alex had leaned against and watched as goosebumps erupted on her tan skin.

“Holy shit, she felt me,” Alex whispered.

Reggie shot up from the ground and ran to the other side of the studio where the potted plants sat on wooden shelves. He took a deep breath and focused on his hand the way Alex and Willie had taught him. He managed to knock one of the plants over. The sound of the pot hitting the wooden floor sounded like a gunshot in the quiet studio.

Julie snapped her head up at the sound.

Luke exhaled in relief. He leaned in by her ear and forced every ounce of strength he had to say her name.

“Luke?”

The three ghosts laughed in amazement. They didn’t know what changed between this attempt and what they had been doing all day, but they were happy she finally noticed them.

Alex stood and walked over to his drum kit. He had an idea. He had no idea if it would work, but it was worth a shot.

“She heard me! Guys, she heard me!” Luke shouted. He brushed a hand over her cheek, trying to wipe the remaining tears away. Julie must have felt it because she closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.

Alex focused and forced the pedal down. The sound of his bass drum echoed as he settled on a steady beat.

Julie’s eyes opened. She look right at him. Alex didn’t know if she could see him, but a small, relieved smile appeared on her lips.

“Yes!” Reggie whispered. He quickly picked up his bass and began strumming out a bass line in tune with Alex’s beat.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, Julie’s gaze moved to him. Reggie let out a childish giggle and bounced on his toes when he saw her smile grow wider.

Luke brushed his hand down her shoulder and arm before moving to grab his guitar from its stand. When he turned to face Julie, he realized her eyes were already on him. He began playing a rift to go along with the others.

Julie’s smile grew into a full grin and all three ghosts grinned back. They watched as she pushed herself off the ground and stood at her mic stand.

She swallowed hard and began singing the pre-chorus for Bright. Each of the boys changed their pace to match Julie’s voice.

As the song picked up and their music grew louder, Julie suddenly cut off to gasp. She was staring at Alex with wide eyes before looking over at Reggie and Luke.

_She can see us,_ each of the boys realized.

Julie looked them up and down before settling on each of their faces. The relief and happiness they felt in that moment was reflected back to them.

“What happened? Where did you go?” her voice shook as tears glistened in her eyes.

The three ghosts glanced at each other, an unspoken conversation between them. Reggie and Alex nodded to Luke.

He licked his lips and met her gaze before softly saying, “We’ve been here the whole time, Jules.”

Julie froze. She started shaking her head. “No. There’s no way. I was waiting for you guys to come back. I thought you were gone with Willie or…”

The three ghosts knew what she was going to say, that Caleb had gotten a hold of them. If Willie was right, then she wasn’t entirely wrong. Reggie made an executive decision. It didn’t happen often, but he knew Luke and Alex wouldn’t argue with him in front of her. Not right now.

“Julie, we had been doing everything we could to get your attention.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Alex and Luke glance at him. They clearly picked up on what he was doing as he steered the topic away from Caleb.

“Yeah, we were there when you woke up. You walked right through me. We tried talking to you, but you couldn’t hear us. Like Reggie said, we have been doing everything we could to try and get your attention. Reggie even yelled in your ear a few times,” Alex laughed.

Julie smiled for a moment before it slipped off her face as quickly as it appeared. Her expression morphed into sorrow.

“Why can’t I see you?” she whispered.

They exchanged another three-way glance. Reggie nodded.

“We don’t know,” he said hesitantly when he looked back at Julie.

“But we’re gonna figure it out, okay? J, we figured out the whole thing with Caleb’s stamps, and we’re going to figure this out. So, don’t worry. We got this,” Luke said. The confidence in his voice made Alex wince.

They had no idea what it was that Caleb even did to manage this, so it was going to be harder this time around. Alex knew that. They all did, but he couldn’t say it when Julie was like this.

The song was starting to end, and none of the ghosts thought Julie could handle another one. The tears in her eyes were starting to trickle down her face again.

“Julie, honey, even if you can’t see us, just know we’re there, okay? We aren’t going to leave you alone. One of us will always be with you while we try to figure out what’s going on,” Alex put every bit of reassurance as he could muster to comfort her.

“You can’t get rid of us that easily. We’re family. A real family. That’s something we haven’t had in a long time, so you’re kind of stuck with us now,” Reggie said. He thought back to what Luke had told him that morning, about how they would always have each other. He knew he was right, but, like Luke said, now they had to help their new family.

Julie choked out a wet laugh. “I love you guys. Please just hurry, alright? We can’t get that record deal and platinum album if I can’t even see you. And try to keep me in the loop as best as you can. I don’t want to be sitting here worrying myself to death.”

Luke smirked. Reggie chuckled. Alex smiled.

Julie’s crude joke made them feel a little better, but they couldn’t help feeling worried. Scared. They had to fix this. None of them could afford to lose the girl who changed everything for them, who stitched their broken pieces back together.

As the song’s final note came and went, they all froze. Nothing happened at first.

For a moment, they ghosts thought that maybe they wouldn’t disappear again. Slowly, they all smiled, but then it happened.

Julie’s smile fell. They knew they were vanishing right before her eyes.

When she slumped against the back of the armchair and dropped her face into her hands, they knew they were gone.

Luke and Reggie placed their guitars back in their stands. Alex tucked his drumsticks in his back pocket. They all moved to stand around Julie. When her shoulders started to shake with uncontrollable sobs, Luke threw his arms around her. Alex and Reggie quickly followed suit.

The four of them stood there in a ghost hug that left Julie trembling either from crying or from the cold.

“Please don’t leave me, too.”

Julie’s words shattered them. Luke squeezed her tighter. Reggie let the tears that he had been holding back all-day finally fall. Alex shut his eyes and buried one hand in Julie’s curls and the other in Reggie’s flannel. Julie pressed herself closer to them, and they knew she felt their embrace.

The three ghosts focused and put every bit of strength and love they had for this girl into one phrase in hopes that she could hear them.

“We won’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know what you guys think! i'm not good at writing emotional things, so it was a struggle to write this. but I really, really, really wanted to do something from the guys' POV. 
> 
> follow me on twitter @evphoricluke 
> 
> follow me on tumblr @sorryinadvancex


	3. Somewhere Only We Know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the delay...please forgive me :D

**The Boys POV**

“Okay, so here’s the deal. I have good news, bad news, terrible news, and really good news,” Alex said as he materialized in Julie’s room.

It had been a few days since Julie had stopped being able to see the three ghosts, and to say it was taking a toll on the four friends was an understatement. Julie stopped sleeping. The dark shadows under her eyes stood out against her dark skin and there were frown lines beginning to etch into her face. All she wanted to do was lay in bed all day, but her father, who had realized something was seriously wrong, had been on top of her at all times. He was constantly hovering and making sure she was eating and doing her school work. Ray hadn’t seen her like this since after they had lost Julie’s mother, and he had prayed to never see her in this state again. Ray, of course, noticed that her three ghost friends were no where to be seen the past week, and he couldn’t help but worry that they had a fight or had crossed over. When he asked Julie about it after the second day, all his daughter said was that they were going to be gone for a little while with “ghost business.” Ray had no clue what that meant but the distraught look on his daughter’s face and the evident tears in her eyes was enough for him not to push the subject more.

On the ghostly end of things, Alex, Luke, and Reggie were struggling. Luke did his best to keep a level head and encourage his friends to stay hopeful, but he was struggling to do so himself. Reggie’s temper was flaring up more and more. It got to the point where Reggie had snapped at Alex so badly that he set the other boy into a panic attack. After that day, Reggie hadn’t said much. Alex’s anxiety was off the charts. It was significantly worse than Luke or Reggie had ever seen, including the period of time when Alex’s parents had discovered the blonde boy was gay back in the nineties. The three ghosts searched for answers but continued to come up empty. They had begged and pleaded with Willie to keep looking for answers in Caleb’s club.

After they found out Caleb was more than likely possessing Nick, one of the ghosts was always near Julie during school hours. They stuck close to her when they knew she shared a class with Nick or would be in his proximity. None of them missed the sly grins and menacing glint in the possessed lifer’s eyes when he glanced in their direction as he spoke to Julie. They had countless arguments over telling Julie what was going on, but Luke’s stance stayed the same. They needed to protect Julie from Caleb, and she was better off not knowing. If she found out and it set the other ghost off, then she could be caught in the crossfire. Until they figured out exactly what Caleb had done to them, Julie would be kept in the dark. It was just safer that way.

“Did Willie find something?” Luke snapped to attention from where he was sprawled on the floor.

Reggie half-heartedly raised his head from his knees to look at Alex. Since his panic attack, Reggie couldn’t bring himself to look his friend in the eye. He would look over his head or keep his eyes trained on the floor as he listened. Alex had reassured him it was okay, that he knew things were tense for all of them right now, but it wasn’t enough for Reggie.

Julie had her schoolbooks scattered across her bed as she struggled through her calculus homework. Alex gazed at her wistfully, hoping she would look up and see him. Instead, she continued scribbling in her notebook as she worked out a math problem.

“Al?” Luke asked hesitantly.

Alex blinked. He ducked his head to avoid looking at Julie and focused his gaze on the ghost on the floor. “Right, so good news is that Willie figured out what Caleb did to make us become invisible to Julie and her family.”

He was cut off when Luke yelled excitedly, “Seriously?”

“Yup. Willie did a lot of snooping and cashed in a few favors with some higher ups in the club. Turns out that Caleb planted something called a talisman somewhere in the house. Apparently it has these five crystals meant to ward off negative or supernatural energy from the premise. Normally the crystals wouldn’t have a lasting impression and really shouldn’t have affected us this much, but Caleb put some of his ghostly magic stuff in it to make it stronger. That’s why we can’t become visible to her at all. The magic in it is so strong and it’s somewhere she spends a lot of time that she can’t see us even when we’re at her school or at Flynn’s. It’s like the crystals are putting a protective bubble around the Molinas.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Reggie muttered from where he was huddled by the closet.

“You said it’s somewhere she spends a lot of time, so it’s either somewhere in the house or in the studio,” Luke said. He furrowed his brows before he spoke again, “Any idea what it looks like?”

“Yeah, that’s the terrible news. We have no idea what it looks like. I don’t even know what the stones look like, and neither does Willie. He just listed the names off, so we’re going to have to search that up later,” Alex grimaced.

Luke nodded as he processed the new information.

“What’s the really good news then?” Reggie whispered. Alex glanced at the other boy with a small smile on his face. “Willie knows how to destroy it. Apparently he knows some, ah, witches who specialize in this kind of thing. One of them owes him a favor for not snitching to Caleb about some dark voodoo stuff or whatever that she was doing. He said that if we can find it, then he can get her to destroy it.”

A beat of silence passed.

“I’m sorry, did you say witches?” Luke choked out.

“Knew it,” Reggie said with a proud nod.

Alex’s smile was growing slightly hysterical. “Yeah, I freaked out when he told me, but I’m too excited about getting Julie back. So, I’m just not going to focus on the whole witches thing right now.”

“Makes sense,” Luke mumbled. “Okay, first things first, we need to figure out what these stones look like so we can start searching the house.”

He crawled closer to Julie’s bed and leaned his chest against the lilac comforter. Luke focused his energy into his hands and grabbed a piece of notebook paper from the scattered piles of books. A pencil appeared at his elbow. He smiled graciously at Reggie and took the offered pencil from his friend’s hand.

Luke scribbled a small note on the paper and tapped Julie’s arm with the pencil to catch her attention.

The girl froze at the contact before slowly turning to see the pencil waving at her. She smiled softly at the action. Luke smiled back, forgetting that she couldn’t see him. Reggie had to nudge his shoulder to bring Luke’s attention back to the task at hand. He used the pencil to tap against the paper he had wrote on for Julie to read.

“We figured out what’s wrong. Need to borrow your laptop. Please,” Julie read aloud. She frowned. “Luke, your handwriting really is terrible.”

Luke huffed at her words. Reggie and Alex both let out a small laugh.

“Yeah, you guys can use my laptop. Let me grab it off the charger,” Julie told them as she slid off her bed. She padded over to her desk and unplugged the slim computer from its charger cord.

She climbed back on the bed and placed the open laptop on top of Luke’s note. As they waited for the laptop to boot up, Julie’s gaze flicked up to where she guessed the guys were standing.

“If you really figured out what happened to us, you think we can get this all sorted in the next few days? I miss being able to see you guys,” Julie said softly, burrowing herself into the oversized crewneck sweater she was wearing. She was pretty sure the sweater had originally belonged to Alex, but she had seen all three of the ghosts wearing it at one point. Now, she staked her claim on it as one of her favorite comfort items.

Alex leaned over Luke to reach out and touch Julie’s shoulder. The answering smile she gave them as she placed her own hand over Alex’s was enough to warm the boys’ bodies from their heads to their toes. Even though Julie couldn’t see them, the three ghosts smiled back at her.

Julie’s laptop screen lit up. She had taken the password off once she realized how often her friends would use it to watch YouTube or Netflix while she was off at school or busy. Alex nudged Luke over so he could open the web browser and begin typing in the name of the stones Willie had told him were part of the talisman. Reggie and Luke peered over his shoulders, while Julie leaned closer to the laptop to watch the screen.

The first stone was a sea green colored crystal called peridot. There was two smooth, midnight black stones called shungite and jet. Reggie raised an eyebrow at a stone that looked almost like a salt crystal he made back in sixth grade science class once, but Alex swore it was something called smoky quartz. Then, there was a chunky purple stone called amethyst.

As Alex finished searching up pictures of each crystal, Julie’s frown became more and more confused. Before she could ask what was going on, Alex opened a blank word document and began furiously typing an explanation of what Willie had told him. He pointedly left out the part about Caleb possessing Nick and simply mentioned that the older ghost had somehow managed to get into the house to hide the talisman. They had decided they would hold off on telling Julie about Nick until they had concrete proof for her to believe them, and the talisman would be as good as any. Plus, it would save them all the argument that would inevitably begin if they told Julie one of her closest friends was being possessed by Caleb this whole time and no one noticed. Alex was certain she would say they were being ridiculous, or Luke was letting his jealousy get the best of him. And they just didn’t have time for that right now. They needed to find the talisman like yesterday.

Julie read his brief explanation on the computer twice to make sure she hadn’t missed anything before nodding and looking in their general direction. “Okay, I’m just going to ignore the whole witch thing for the sake of time. Although, I’m sure Reggie is super proud about being right. So somewhere I would be often is either the studio or the house. Is that what you guys were thinking?”

 _Yes,_ Alex typed.

“Cool. I can do this work later. Let’s start looking. It would be faster if we split up, so let’s all take a room, yeah? I’ll search in here. Alex, search my dad and Carlos’ room. Reg, you check the kitchen. Luke, check the living room. We should probably check the restrooms, too, huh?”

 _Gross, but yeah. It might be a good idea,_ Alex typed.

She wrinkled her nose at the thought. “Whoever finishes their room first, check the nearest restroom. Meet back in here in two hours, and we can all go search the studio together.”

Luke shoved Alex over so he could type. The blonde let out an indignant squawk as he was pushed into Julie’s bedside table.

_Alright, boss._

“What do we do if we find the thingy?” Reggie asked quietly.

“Ah, forgot about that! Hold on,” Alex hip bumped Luke out of the way.

“If one of us finds it, we can’t touch it. Only you can. According to Willie, there’s a possibility we can get blasted out of existence, especially since we’re still new to the whole ghost thing,” Alex read aloud as he typed it for Julie.

“Real fucking cheerful,” Luke muttered.

“That’s a pleasant thought,” Julie said with wide eyes.

“No touchy, got it,” Reggie nodded.

“Alrighty. Let’s find this evil talisman thing,” Julie slipped off the bed and began emptying the rest of her school bag on her bed. The three ghosts took that as their cue to begin looking in their designated rooms and poofed out.

+

**Julie’s POV**

An hour had passed with no success. Julie hadn’t realized how messy her room was until she had to find the talisman Willie had told the guys about. She made a mental note to clean up her room the next free Saturday she had because this was ridiculous. The last time it had been this messy was after her mom had passed away, and she couldn’t find the energy to care.

Shaking her head of the thought, Julie sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her mom’s old trunk of clothes. She took a moment to admire the collage of old ticket stubs and backstage passes and smiled. Julie couldn’t help thinking how much her mom would have loved the guys. Julie could imagine her mother talking to Luke about music and bands, teasing Alex about Willie yet being so proud and supportive, and listening to Reggie enthusiastically ramble about bugs or dinosaurs or even Star Wars with a warm smile on her face.

Julie reached out to touch the faded dahlia sticker on the inside of the lid when she noticed something. It looked like the lining had been cut along the edge of the trunk’s lid.. If Julie had been anyone else, she probably wouldn’t have noticed the minor flaw or would have written it off to the trunk being old and worn out. Julie, however, knew better. She had looked through this trunk a million times since she was a small child, and that cut had never been there.

With steady hands, Julie gently wiggled her fingers underneath the worn fabric and froze when she felt something cold. She gently forced her fingers further, trying her best not to tear the fabric more. Finally, after a moment of struggling, her fingers caught hold of the edge of the hidden object. She slowly pulled the object free, barely avoiding the loose threads, and closed her fist around the item.

Julie sat back on her heels to look at what she had found. It took her a moment to realize it looked like half a bracelet or arm cuff. It was a silver metal band with stones encrusted into the metal, but one end of the metal looked frayed and worn. It was almost as if someone had forcibly ripped the metal in half and left it jagged.

“Guys! I think I found it!” Julie jumped up to shout out of her open bedroom door. As she waited for the guys to come back, she sat on the edge of her bed to open the web browser on her laptop again.

She inspected the stones on the bracelet against the stones on the computer that one of the guys—probably Alex—had pulled up. Although the stones in the bracelet were most likely cut and finished neatly to fit into the silver metal, they were a definite match to the ones on the computer screen.

The bracelet in her hand suddenly felt like ice and she had to force herself not to drop it. What the—?

“Guys, are you in here?” Julie asked.

The bedroom lights flickered three times.

“Huh. I guess when ya’ll came in here, the bracelet could almost sense it? Maybe? And it got super cold all of a sudden,” Julie trailed off and focused back on the laptop in front of her. She skimmed the search entries on one of the websites before a thought occurred to her. Are these stones specifically meant to ward off against ghosts? Is that a thing?

Frowning, Julie opened a new tab and typed: _crystals used to ward off ghosts._

She skimmed through a few search results before clicking on the most promising one. It talked about crystals used to protect from negative energies, which, Julie thought, could be ghosts in some peoples’ minds. As she read, the bracelet grew colder in her hand. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, but she was too scared to put it down in case she puts it on one of the guys.

The article talked about how stones and crystals have been used to protect people from evil spirits and negative energy for centuries. Underneath the passage, there was a list of the most commonly used ones with pictures. Julie scrolled down the list and, sure enough, all five crystals Alex had searched up earlier were all mentioned.

“These crystals are specifically used to protect people from negative energies, which I guess could make sense. Ghosts aren’t typically considered a positive energy, no offense to you three, of course,” Julie mused.

“But Caleb hid it in my mom’s trunk. It was literally in the lining on the lid,” Julie explained as she opened her fist to show the guys the partial bracelet.

The laptop moved away from her and one of the guys opened the word document once again.

_Why does it look like only half a bracelet? Was that how you found it?_

“Yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking. It almost looks like it was ripped in half, right? I bet Caleb hid the other piece somewhere else.”

_Studio?_

Julie pursed her lips. “Probably. It would make the most sense if he knew how much time we spent in there. We should check there next. Let me just find somewhere to put this.”

She looked around in her room before laying her eyes on a shoe box in her closet. Julie stood to pick the box off the ground and gently placed the platform boots her aunt had gotten her a few months ago on the carpet. She placed the bracelet in the box and closed the lid.

“Perfect,” Julie said with a satisfied nod. Now she didn’t have to worry about accidentally touching one of the guys with it and wouldn’t end up freezing her hand off. It was a win for everyone.

“Okay. Studio time?” Julie asked the seemingly empty room. She waited for a response.

Someone flickered the lights once.

“Cool. Let’s go, boys.”

+

**The Guys’ POV**

Despite being able to poof into the studio, the three ghosts followed Julie out of the house like little ducklings.

“I’m going to go find Willie, so we can get rid of this thing as soon as possible,” Alex told his friends.

“Yeah, good idea. The faster we get rid of this thing the faster things can go back to normal. I hate having to communicate with Julie like this,” Luke grumbled.

Reggie nodded in agreement.

Alex smiled knowingly but ignored the comment. “Be back in a bit!”

“No detours,” Luke teased the other boy. A sly grin danced on his lips.

Alex’s cheeks reddened. “Shut up. Just find the other half, Patterson.”

When Julie reached the studio, she pulled the wooden doors open and stomped in. Her long curls swung along her back as she slammed the shoe box down on the coffee table.

“One of you take the loft, while the rest of us look down here. I want to get this over with already,” Julie told them.

Reggie immediately popped up into the loft, leaving Luke and Julie down on the first floor of the studio.

It felt like they had been searching for days but what could have only been an hour or so. Their anticipation buzzed through the studio as they anxiously searched for the other half of the bracelet. They all wanted this nightmare to be over with.

 _It was probably a good thing Alex had left because his anxiety would have been so bad right now_ , Luke thought.

Julie had been digging around behind the potted plants in the far side of the studio while Luke’s entire upper half was practically inside the grand piano as he forced his arm into every nook and cranny he could find when Reggie called his name.

Luke poofed up into the loft to see Reggie balanced precariously on one of the exposed beams in the ceiling above the loft.

“What the hell are you doing?” he laughed. “Are you stuck, Reg?”

Reggie grunted as he struggled to pull himself higher on the beam. “No, dumbass. Well, maybe a little, but I need you to push me up. I think I found it, but I can’t reach.”

Luke smirked. “You must really regret skipping gym class right about now, huh?”

“Shut up and help me,” his best friend snapped at him.

“Yeah, yeah,” Luke said. He climbed onto an old speaker and pulled himself onto the beam Reggie was on. He laid his body flat against the beam and grabbed hold of the other boy’s boots. He planted his own feet firmly against the beam that crossed with the one they were on and pushed. The momentum of the push shoved Reggie forward and Luke tried to ignore how the wood was pinching into his stomach.

“Is now really the time for you two to be messing around?” Alex called down from the ground level.

Luke glanced down to see Alex and Willie smirking up at them from where they stood by the doors. He noticed Willie had an old knapsack slung over his shoulders.

“Reggie found it, but he couldn’t reach,” Luke explained.

Alex nodded. “Okay. And how are you two going to get it down here? Julie is definitely not going to climb up there.”

“Ah, that’s a good question,” Reggie mumbled. “Luke? Any ideas?”

“Not a one,” Luke mumbled back.

The blonde boy shook his head and whispered something to his boyfriend. Willie laughed and whispered something back.

“You two share a brain cell, you know that?” Alex called up to them. Before Luke or Reggie could respond, he pulled one of his drumsticks out of his back pocket. “Think fast!”

Alex tossed the drumstick up towards Reggie, who surprisingly managed to catch it. He used the stick to brush the other half of the bracelet off the beam. It clattered against the wooden floor on the ground level. The sound echoed in the otherwise silent studio.

Luke and Reggie popped down to stand beside Alex and Willie just as Julie turned to look in their direction. She moved towards them and accidentally kicked the talisman towards Willie, who leapt out of the way.

+

**Julie’s POV**

“Oh, good. You guys found it,” Julie said. She bent to pick up the broken half of the bracelet before stopping to pull her sweater sleeve over her hand. Using the fabric as a makeshift glove, Julie picked the silver bracelet up and examined it. The crystals winked back at her as they caught the light. She tried to suppress a shiver as the freezing cold metal bit into her skin through the sweater.

 _All this fuss for an ugly bracelet,_ Julie thought as she placed it into the shoe box with its other half.

Shaking her head, she glanced around the room. The shoe box felt like ice in her hands. Julie had to stop herself from crushing it. This stupid bracelet was all that was stopping her from being able to see her best friends, and Julie was completely over it.

“Well, we have it. Now what?” Julie asked the empty studio.

A cool breeze washed over the right side of her body, making her shiver.

“Is Willie here?” Julie asked and then frowned. “Um, do that again for yes and don’t for no. Does that make sense?”

The breeze came again and she had to suppress a shiver.

“So, Willie is here?” The breeze went away and then came back in full force.

“Does he have a bag or something? I don’t want him to touch the box and, you know, he gets zapped from existence. I don’t think Alex would be very happy about that,” Julie said drily.

The breeze went away once again and then came back. She could feel goose bumps appearing on her arms underneath the sweater. For a moment, Julie swore she heard a raspy chuckle that didn’t belong to any of her bandmates.

Willie?

“How about I just hold the box out and Willie can do whatever he’s going to do? Cool? Cool.”

These one-sided conversations were really starting to wear away at her already declining mental state. _Thank God no one is here. They would think I was insane, and I would be back to seeing Dr. Turner again_ , Julie thought to herself.

True to her word, Julie stuck her arms straight out and held the box away from her body. A moment passed before the shoe box slowly disappeared as it was slipped into whatever bag Willie brought with him. She could feel the rough fabric brush over her knuckles as she slipped her hands out of the bag.

Silence washed over the studio as Julie waited. A few minutes passed and then the telltale sound of a ghost poofing out of the garage echoed in the quiet room.

 _Willie must have left,_ she thought.

Julie dropped onto the couch, suddenly exhausted, and put her head in her hands. The lack of sleep from the past few days must have finally caught up to her. She was so tired and mentally exhausted that Julie didn’t notice when an arm wrapped around her shoulder. A set of hands slipped her tennis shoes off her feet, while another set of hands began gently stroking her hair.

Julie felt warm and safe as she slept contently for the first time in days.

+

**The Boys POV**

After Willie left to his weird witchy connection, the three ghosts watched as Julie sat on the couch, practically sinking into the worn out cushions and dropping her face into her hands. They exchanged glances and nervously shifted their weight from foot to foot. A few minutes passed and none of them spoke. They couldn’t form words as the nervous energy crackled between them

Suddenly, Julie began to softly snore against her hands. Alex and Luke slumped into the chairs across from Julie as they waited. Reggie sank into the neon green bean bag Carlos had dragged into the studio a few weeks ago.

They all watched Julie sleep, letting the sound of her breathing slowly relax them. When her head began to droop to the side, Luke quickly rushed forward to catch her and bring her into his side as he sat beside her.

Then, he froze. He had _touched her_. She was pressed into his side and her head was nestled against his shoulder. Her curly hair tickled his nose every time he inhaled.

Luke slowly looked up at his friends. They wore matching shocked expressions. For a moment, none of them moved as they slowly realized what this meant.

Alex was the first one to recover. He moved to Julie’s other side and brushed her hair away from her face. When his callused hands made contact with her soft curls, all the tension seemed to leave his body. Alex murmured something under his breathe that was too quiet for the others to catch before resting his forehead against Julie’s shoulder.

Reggie gave Alex a chance to recover and moved to untie Julie’s shoes. Once he dropped her shoes onto the wooden floor, Reggie looked up to see Luke smiling down at him. Alex watched him with teary eyes.

He pointedly ignored his friends and leaned forward to drop a soft kiss against Julie’s forehead.

When Reggie sat back to settle on the coffee table in front of the couch, allowing his long legs to brush against Julie’s knees, Luke whispered, “Old habits die hard, huh, Reg?’

Reggie froze. He knew Luke was referring to how he treated Julie the same way he used to treat his kid sister when he was alive in the nineties. Julie was so much like her it hurt sometimes, but he couldn’t stop himself.

“Yeah, they do,” was all Reggie whispered back.

The three ghosts sat there for hours, allowing Julie to finally sleep for the first time since this whole mess started. Exhaustion and fatigue hit them hard, but, although none of them wanted to say it, they were all scared to sleep. The three ghosts didn’t want to wake up and find out this day had been all a dream. That Julie still couldn’t see or touch them.

The real test came when the garage door cracked open to see Carlos and Ray peak their heads in, no doubt looking for Julie. The three ghosts tensed and waited.

“Hey boys, haven’t seen you in a while. Is she asleep?” Ray whispered. He nudged Carlos out of the way to enter the garage.

Luke nodded. “Yes sir, she fell asleep after band rehearsal. We wanted to let her rest,” he said.

Ray, being the saint he is, pointedly ignored the way Luke’s voice cracked. The older man just nodded and smiled at them. “Okay, I’m going to start dinner. I’ll let ya’ll know when it’s ready. Sound good?”

Luke nodded his thanks. Alex smiled and gave a soft “Yes, sir.” Reggie couldn’t help it. He rushed over to Ray and captured the man in a hug.

“Hey, buddy. It’s just dinner,” Ray laughed, wrapping his arms around the ghost boy’s shoulders.

Reggie smiled up at him. “Yeah, I know. You’re just the best dad ever, you know that?”

Ray squeezed him tighter in response. Carlos raised an eyebrow at the scene in front of him but wisely stayed quiet from where he leaned against the garage door.

When Reggie released Ray from the hug, the older man ruffled his hair and smiled before shooing Carlos out of the studio. They quietly shut the door behind them.

Luke and Alex noticed how Reggie’s eyes lit up and a smile danced along his lips. The fact that his father-figure could see him again definitely brightened Reggie’s mood for the first time in days. The bassist returned to his spot on the coffee table in front of them, carrying himself a little lighter.

Luke looked at Reggie, then Alex, until his gaze dropped to Julie’s sleeping face.

“You guys, we finally got her back.”


	4. Bright Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here is the last part!! it's a little short, but i didn't want to drag this out. it's short and sweet. 
> 
> i know i have been MIA lately, but I'm trying to catch up and finish some cliff hangers. so expect more updates to come soon! 
> 
> enjoy :D

**Julie’s POV**

The first thing Julie noticed when she finally woke up was that she was very warm, and her neck was stiff. The next thing she noticed was that she was being shaken awake.

“Julie?”

Her eyes snapped open. The sudden change in lighting made her blink and rub her eyes, but there was no mistaking who she had heard. That was Alex’s voice.

Once her eyes adjusted, Julie focused on the face in front of her. Alex’s bright blue eyes stared down at her. His blonde hair looked like a bird nest on his head, and a small furrow appeared between his brows.

She hesitantly reached a hand out to touch him. Part of her was worried that she was still dreaming, but she hoped with every bit of her heart and soul that he was really there in front of her. That she could see her boys again. When her fingertips made contact with his shoulder, Julie let out a small gasp.

“Oh my God. Oh my God! I can touch you! _I can see you!_ ” she shouted. A slightly hysterical giggle escape her lips, but she didn’t care. Julie threw her arms around Alex’s shoulders and he returned the embrace with matching enthusiasm.

“Wow, Alex gets all the attention, huh?” Luke snarked from somewhere to her right.

Julie and Alex both laughed. They let each other go, and she saw Luke sitting beside her, leaning against the armrest of the couch.

“He’s nicer than you, so of course he gets more attention,” Julie replied. Her words were snarky, but her tone was full of amazement and relief.

Luke rolled his eyes. Julie grinned.

“Come here, cry baby,” she said, tugging on his shirt.

That small gesture was all the encouragement he needed to pull her close and bury his face into her curls. She hugged him back, leaning her forehead into his shoulder.

“I missed you, Molina,” he whispered into her hair.

“I missed you too, Luke,” she whispered back.

She looked over his shoulder to see Reggie standing by the studio doors, nervously wringing his hands.

With a soft smile, Julie released Luke and used his knee to push herself off the couch. She walked towards Reggie and stopped a few feet away from him.

“Hey, Reg,” she whispered affectionately. “Can I have a hug from my favorite big brother?”

“Hey!” Alex protested behind her.

Reggie met her eyes and watched her for a moment. When she opened her arms for him, the boy ran and threw his arms around her waist. She giggled, clutching his shoulders tightly as he lifted her off the ground. He held her there for a moment before carefully placing her feet back on the ground.

Julie’s heart felt like it broke all over again when she pulled back and saw the tears running down his face.

“Oh, Reggie,” Julie murmured. That was all it took for the tears she had been struggling to keep back to come rushing down her face.

“I was so scared, J. I thought I lost you, all of you. I had just found a family, and I couldn’t handle losing you guys. I couldn’t do it,” Reggie sobbed.

Julie sniffled. “We aren’t gone. You brought us back. All three of you saved us. We’re going to be okay.”

Luke and Alex came closer and wrapped their arms around the two crying teens. Pretty soon, they were a pile of sobbing teenagers with snot and tears covering their faces. Julie just kept repeating “We’re okay. We’re gonna be okay” overs and overs like a mantra.

None of them knew how long they stood there crying in each other’s arms, but eventually they were all cried out. They cleaned off their faces and ran fingers through their hair. They were a mess, but it was okay. They were a mess together, and they could help put each other’s broken pieces back together one day at a time. 

As they walked back to the house together, Luke suddenly stopped halfway up the stairs.

“Julie, now that things are fixed, you should know,” he hesitated, glancing at Alex and Reggie who nodded encouragingly, “Nick is possessed. By Caleb. That’s how he managed to put the bracelet thing in the house.”

Julie sighed, shaking her head in disbelief. “Luke, there is no way that’s true. I would have noticed if he was possessed. I literally see the kid every day.”

Alex and Reggie both shook their heads.

“He’s telling the truth, Jules. Willie told us about some things that have been going on at the club. Apparently Caleb had been MIA, but he suddenly came back. In a teenager’s body. Willie described him to us, and it sounds just like Nick,” Alex explained.

“Yeah, and the past few days, we would follow you around at school, and Nick could _see us_. He would give us these stupid looks and smile at us like he knew something we didn’t,” Reggie said, anger tinting his voice.

Julie processed their words for a moment and nodded. “Okay. I believe you. We’ll deal with that tomorrow. For tonight, I just want to hangout with you guys and be normal. Just one night of normal, and we can deal with everything else tomorrow, okay?”

The three ghosts nodded, relieved the truth was finally out.

Tomorrow they would solve their problems with Caleb and talk to Willie about the destroyed bracelet. Tomorrow the boys would figure out how Nick got possessed and how no one had noticed he was acting differently. Tomorrow they would make up for lost time and get back to band rehearsals and songwriting. They just wanted to stick together tonight. They wanted to eat dinner with Ray and Carlos and laugh and play. They wanted to fall asleep in Julie’s bed in the most platonic cuddle pile ever and enjoy each other’s presence. They wanted to be a normal, ghost and human family for one night and deal with the real world tomorrow.


	5. Bonus-Caleb's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FIlipina04 gave me the idea to write this last chapter, and I had so much fun doing it! Now this is officially the end of Are You With Me? 
> 
> Thank you for all the love!! Enjoy!

**Caleb’s POV**

It had been two weeks since he had placed the talisman in the lifer’s house. He was almost disappointed with how easy it was to sneak the two halves of the bracelet into her bedroom and studio. You would think the three ghosts she had at her beck and call would have been slightly more observant with where people roamed in the Molina’s household, especially Luke. Caleb couldn’t hold back his amusement when he caught the sidelong glances and affectionate smiles between Luke and his lifer girl. He almost felt bad for the young ghost. If history had proved anything, it was that star-crossed lovers always ended in tragedy. 

_Silly, little ghost,_ Caleb had thought, _falling for the lifer is only going to come back to haunt you._

His most trusted witch contact had told him it would take a few days for the talisman’s effects to begin. The anticipation that had been building inside him as he waited for the lifer girl’s reaction to not seeing the three ghosts made him practically giddy. It wasn’t until the following Monday, exactly one week after hiding the talisman, that he noticed Julie had seemed very on edge and almost mournful. Of course, he had to keep up his caring, tender-hearted façade for dear Nicholas’ sake and ask if the girl was okay. He could hardly keep a smile off his face when he heard the girl struggle to form a vague response about not feeling good as her voice shook with tears.

Caleb didn’t dislike Julie Molina, per say. However, she was the reason why he lost the three most powerful ghosts he had seen in decades right off his very own stage. He had clearly underestimated the love the girl had for the three phantoms, and he would not be making that mistake again. The whole point of his plan of installing the talisman in her house and essentially making the boys invisible to her (as was the natural order of things) was for them to become desperate and come crawling back to the Hollywood Ghost Club. Breaking their hearts and crushing their spirits was just an added plus.

Unfortunately, the following Sunday, Caleb was forced to meet Julie and Flynn at the library to work on a group project for their mundane science class. Having to attend classes and maintain the high school student act was a major drawback in his plan. Caleb quickly grew to despise the classes, but Nicholas’ memories were helpful. This way he didn’t appear lost or out of character when teachers approached him or when he was forced to interact with his possessed lifer’s friends.

As he strode into the library and scanned the tables for the two girls, he wasn’t at all surprised to see Alex, Luke, and Reggie hovering around the girls’ table. Ever since the talisman had taken effect, Caleb had noticed the three young ghosts had become much more protective of their girl. They even went so far as to give Caleb the most hateful and murderous looks when he paraded himself around Julie. Today was no different. As Caleb approached the two human girls, he couldn’t help but smirk at the ghosts as they gave them their best glares.

_If looks could kill,_ Caleb thought smugly.

“Hello, ladies,” Caleb greeted them as he dropped his book bag onto the table and slipped into the empty chair across from Julie. His smirk effortlessly melted into a warm smile.

Julie and Flynn, however, didn’t return it. Instead, Flynn was glaring at him almost as ferociously as the three ghosts surrounding them were. Julie tried to maintain a composed, neutral expression, but he couldn’t miss the hard glint in her eye or the way her jaw was clenched tightly.

“Something wrong?” he asked, hesitantly.

Flynn was too busy killing him again with her eyes to respond. Julie raised her chin slightly before saying, “Nope. Everything is peachy. So, any ideas on what to do for this project?”

Caleb couldn’t help blinking at her harsh tone. He slowly raised his eyes to look at the three ghosts. They were positioned behind Julie’s chair, directly in his line of sight, with their arms crossed over their chests. If Caleb was any other ghost, it almost would have been an intimidating sight. Of course, being the most powerful and oldest ghost in L.A., they were about as intimidating as puppies.

When he met their gaze, Alex and Reggie gave him sly smirks. Luke had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. Caleb immediately looked back at Julie to see she had raised an unimpressed brow at him.

_No,_ he thought, _there’s no way they knew. How could they know?_

“Cat got your tongue, Nicky?” Flynn asked drily. “Or should I call you Caleb?”

Caleb opened his mouth to defend himself, but he was at a loss for words. A mix of disbelief, confusion, and anger clashed as he processed the situation. They knew what he did. They somehow found and destroyed the talisman. They knew who he really was, but the question was how? He kept such close tabs on William after his little stunt with the Orpheum performance that it couldn’t have been him. Caleb practically had the other ghost on a leash. There was no other way they could have figured it out, but they did.

“Caleb Covington, the score is two to zero. Do you really want to keep raking my score higher?” Julie whispered harshly, leaning in close enough he could feel her warm breath on his face. “It’s kind of sad. A big, bad, powerful ghost like you is losing to a teenage girl.”

“I can’t say I know what you’re talking about,” Caleb practically winced at his own pathetic attempt of innocence.

“Don’t play games with me. These three ghosts are _mine._ They are staying with me. You can keep playing these ridiculous tricks and trying to tear us apart. They won’t go running back to you. You’re never going to win, so just give up while the getting’s good. Save both of us the time and effort.”

Caleb was practically seething now. Who did this pathetic little lifer think she was? He was the one in charge of all the ghosts in Los Angeles, and he was determined to keep it that way. These three rogues were giving him a bad look, and he couldn’t afford for others to start getting rebellious.

He leaned closer to Julie. Flynn and the ghosts immediately reached out to pull her back, but she shrugged their hands off her shoulders.

“Little girl, you really don’t want to start something you can’t finish. You might think you can handle this, but I guarantee you it will just end in tears for you. I have faced much more powerful and impressive opponents, and I have always come out on top. Are you sure you want to play this game with me?” Caleb growled.

“Save yourself the embarrassment and walk away. Leave us alone, get out of Nick, and just go back to playing at your stupid club,” Julie told him.

Caleb was almost impressed. In all his years of existing, both alive and as a ghost, he had never faced someone this determined and fearless.

“I’ll tell you what, Julie. You might win this battle, but, sweetheart, I’m going to win the war.”

Caleb snatched his bag off the table and walked away from the lifer and her pet ghosts. He was going to figure out how they found out about the talisman and come back with something so much worse. This child had no clue what she was getting herself into. Caleb was going to make her regret taking his prize right out from under his nose not once but twice. That was a promise, and Caleb Covington always keeps his promises.

**Author's Note:**

> Soooooo what did yall think? Should I write a second part from the guys' POV??


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